Gathering the Darkness
by Rurouni Tsuki
Summary: THIS STORY HAS BEEN ENTIRELY REVISED AND REWRITTEN! NEW STUFF ADDED IN CHAPTER 4!! Harry is having a horrible summer, untill one night his godfather shows up witha very injured professor McGonagall in his arms...
1. Chapter 1

A/N: My second fic! Yah! Anyways, this is gonna be a chapter fic. I've completely revised the entiree thing, so if you started to read it, you may wish to read it again. Also, I received complaints on chapter length, so I tied two (and in some cases three) chapters together, mixing some things around a bit. So, the story is basically the same with some of the chapters combined. I didn't remove anything, just combined it, ok? Ok. ON WITH THE STORY!!!  
  
Gathering the Darkness  
  
Chapter 1  
  
To say he was having a horrible summer was an understatement. In fact, the Boy-Who-Lived was completely miserable. His aunt and uncle were having him complete senseless chores over and over again. For instance, when was the last time they had actually lit a fire in the fireplace? Well, Harry had cleaned out the chimney six times since school got out and it wasn't even his birthday yet.  
  
When he finished the day's chores, he stumbled into his room like a drunk. Opening the bureau door, he stared at his reflection in the mirror. A boy of fourteen, almost fifteen glared back. He had a thin, muscular body and a pale face marred by a lightning bolt shape scar on his forehead. His brilliant green eyes were hidden behind coke-bottle glasses and his jet- black hair was as unruly as ever. He had grown a little since school had gotten out and was now nearly five foot ten. Sighing, he stripped down to his boxers and slipped into bed, hoping that maybe he would get a good night's sleep. How wrong he was.  
  
He hadn't dozed for more than five minutes when BANG BANG!! an urgent pounding at the front door awaked him. Harry lay still, listening to his uncle's footsteps as he clomped down the stairs. He held his breath and waited for the telltale scream that it was Voldemort, but was surprised when it didn't come. He could he people speaking down stairs and, after a moment's thought, decided to investigate. He opened his door and slipped silently into the stairwell.  
  
".injured badly. We need a place to stay for the night so that she can recuperate a little. I promise we'll be no trouble Mr. Dursley."  
  
"Absolutely not! I will not tolerate the presence of.freaks like you in my house! NOW GET OUT!!!" roared Vernon Dursley.  
  
Harry had heard enough to recognize at least one of the guests. It was Sirius. But what was he talking about? Who was hurt? He crept down the stairs a bit more and poked his head out of the hallway. Sirius was standing in the doorway wearing a black cloak. He was holding someone tightly in his arms, but Harry couldn't make out who it was.  
  
"Please. I'm begging you."pleaded Sirius.  
  
Harry had never seen Sirius so upset. He nearly screamed when his uncle reached toward the phone and hissed, "Get out now or I'll call the police on you. And don't think I won't. I don't have to tolerate people like you in MY house hold threatening MY family!"  
  
Harry knew by instinct that it was time to intervene. "Sirius?" he asked innocently. "What are you doing here?"  
  
Vernon paled, "T-t-this is S-s-sirius? As in, your G-godf-father?"  
  
"Yessir," replied Harry.  
  
"F-f-fine. You may stay. I-I-I'm going back to b-bed," Vernon stuttered before tearing off up stairs like a rabbit with a dog on it's tail (no pun intended).  
  
"Help me out," muttered Sirius. Harry grabbed two blankets from the downstairs linen closet and can back to find his godfather putting Minerva McGonagall on the couch.  
  
Harry gawked at poor Professor McGonagall. She had gashes and bruises all over her body and there was blood everywhere. Her right arm was twisted at a grotesquely odd angle and her lips were tingled blue. He thought she was dead until he saw her chest rise slightly and then fall again. She was alive, but only just.  
  
Sirius had found some towels in the bathroom and had gotten a bowl of water. He saw the shocked look on Harry's face and muttered, "Yeah, I know. She looks horrible. Could you go and get your wand?"  
  
Harry nodded and bolted up stairs as fast as his legs could carry him, taking care not to wake his relatives. He found his wand under the floorboards of his room and practically fell down the stairs in his rush to get to the living room. When he got there, Sirius was cleaning some of the congeled blood off of her face.  
  
"What happened?" Harry asked breathlessly, looking very concerned. Sirius had finished cleaning off the blood at this point and was now setting her broken right arm. Harry handed him the wand.  
  
"It's a very long story," he mumbled. He preformed a spell with Harry's wand before continuing. "Good. This arm is the only thing broken. She's pretty lucky about that. She lost quite a bit of blood, but I think she'll be alright in a day or two. Anyway, I was staying at Remus' house, but tonight is the full moon, so I decided to do some exploring. I heard some screaming, followed it, and found a group of Death Eaters torturing her. It seems she was visiting a relative and they kidnapped her on her way home. I had to wait until they finished so I wouldn't be exposed and when they did, I grabbed her and apparated here, because Remus' house wasn't safe. The last thing she would need after being tortured by a group of slimeball Deatheaters is to be mauled by a full grown werewolf."  
  
"Hmm," was all Harry could say in reply. McGonagall looked about three hundred times better now than when she had first gotten there. Her broken arm was tightly bandaged and lay in a sling across her chest. There was no more blood on her face and body, but her robes were soaked with it. "Maybe we should find her a new set of robes. Those are just gross."  
  
Sirius leaned back against the coffee table and was about to speak, when suddenly, McGonagall woke up. 


	2. Chapter 2

Gathering the Darkness  
  
Chapter 2  
  
The first thing McGonagall did when she woke up was to sit up and scream. Very loudly. Harry reached over and clapped a hand over her mouth, knowing his uncle would be very mad if she woke the whole village. She bit him and quieted down, taking the hint. Harry moved his hand so she could speak.  
  
"How are you feeling, Professor?" questioned Sirius as gently as he could. McGonagall apparently did not appreciate the concern. She was looking like she was both frightened and in huge amounts of pain.  
  
"GET AWAY FROM ME YOU BASTARD!!!" she shrieked and curled up as far away from Sirius as possible, which was not far at all.  
  
Sirius picked up Harry's wand, causing McGonagall to flinch. He held it up and cast a silencing charm around the room so that her screaming wouldn't be heard by the neighbors. Then, he turned to leave the room. He stopped at the doorway and without turning around said, "Harry, would you please talk some sense into her? Tell her what happened. I would, but she's not going to listen to me. I-I'll be in the kitchen." As Sirius left, Harry could tell McGonagall's outburst had hurt him.  
  
Harry sighed and sat down, in time to hear his Head of House say, "Where am I? What happened? And what the hell is he doing here?"  
  
It suddenly came to Harry that he had never heard her swear before, and yet, she had just cursed twice in the past ten minutes.  
  
He closed his eyes and said, "You are in my house. You were attacked by Death Eaters and Sirius rescued you and brought you here," At this point, McGonagall tried to point out that the man in the kitchen was a convicted murderer and there for no better than the Deatheaters who attacked her, but Harry overrode her saying, "Let me explain. You remember when he escaped from Azkaban two years ago? Well."  
  
It took twenty minutes and a lot of interruptions, but Harry managed to explain to her the night that Sirius showed up at Hogwarts two years ago. When he finished the story, McGonagall stared at him and asked, "So you were the one who helped him escape?"  
  
"Yes, Hermione, and me" Harry answered wearily. He felt like he was going to fall asleep any second.  
  
"Well, then I'm proud of you both. It takes a lot of courage to pull off something as risky and hairbrained as that. Imagine if you had been caught! I thought I saw Pettigrew tonight, but I dismissed it as pure imagination. But now, I think he was one of the ones who..."she trailed off and shuddered at the memory. Harry felt a surge of hate rush through him as he could only imagine what had been done to her. She coughed, regained her composure and continued. "I need to tell Sirius I'm sorry.I shouldn't have yelled at him. Could you please bring him in here?"  
  
Harry went into the kitchen to find Sirius experimenting with the light switch. He sent Sirius in to talk to McGonagall and then started to make tea. He brought the tea into the other room, only to find that McGonagall had fallen asleep on the couch and Sirius was settling himself down on the floor in his dog form. Harry grinned and flopped down in a chair to finally get some sleep. But, the night's events weren't over yet.  
  
Harry fell asleep after a few moments. But, tonight he wasn't in for a peaceful night.  
  
He was dreaming again. That wasn't a good thing. They weren't even dreams really, more like visions. Vivid visions of the Death Eaters' activities. This one started out in a girl's room, which was the absolute last place he wanted to be at the moment. The walls were painted light blue with clouds etched here and there. The room itself contained a dresser, a bed, a desk and chair set, a bookshelf filled with books, and a guitar resting lightly on a stand. A girl with long, dark brown hair flounced into the room. She grabbed her guitar of the stand and began to play an Avril Lavinge song he had heard on the radio just the other day.  
  
"He was a boy She was a girl Can I make it any more obvious? He was a punk She did ballet What more can I say? He wanted her She'd never tell Secretly she wanted him as well But all of her friends Stuck up their nose They had a problem with his baggy clothes  
  
He was a skater boy She said see ya later boy He wasn't good enough for her."  
  
He had to smile. She was a great singer and guitar player. He'd heard the song before, of course, but personally he liked this version better than the original. Then, the door burst open and two death eaters and Voldemort stormed in. Harry grimanced. He knew that would happen. These visons were becoming like cheesy horror flicks where you already know the outcome. The girl jumped and screamed. Voldemort cackled and raised his wand saying, "I'll be merciful, only because I liked your singing. Avada Kedavra!"  
  
The girl fell off her bed, dead. Harry felt sick. He opened his eyes as a burning pain shot through his scar. "Harry? Harry! Wake up!" Sirius was shaking him.  
  
"Ok, ok. Jeez. I'm up," snapped Harry.  
  
McGonagal peered at him from over Sirius's shoulder and said, "Are you all right, dear? It's nearly nine o'clock. Come, I made breakfast."  
  
Harry forced himself up, but he couldn't shake the dead girl from his mind. Unconsciously, he sang the last few words to the song to himself.  
  
"She had a pretty face But her head was up in space She needed to come back down to Earth." 


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Ok, so I'm back. There seems to be a bit of a misunderstanding. Voldemort did not kill Avril Lavigne. He killed a muggle girl who was singing that song. Ok? Ok. Also, please do me a major favor. NO FLAMES!! Constructive critasizam is ok though. I'm working on the length thing.  
  
And now...  
  
Gathering the Darkness  
  
Chapter 3  
  
He walked into the kitchen feeling gloomy. He always did after his dreams. He wondered where she lived, what she was like, who she was. It was the worst sort of torture that he could be put through, knowing that that girl had just died and he could do absolutly nothing about it. His scar ached. Wincing slightly, he sat down at the table where McGonagall had laid out pancakes and bacon. It turns out she was quite a good cook. Sirius glanced at Harry from across the table and asked, "Are you alright? You look very pale."  
  
"I'm fine," he said and then, deciding it was no use to lie he added. "I had another dream last night."  
  
Sirius sighed, but McGonagall looked very puzzled, "What sort of dream?"  
  
Harry related the dream to them and she looked very concerned.  
  
"How long has this been going on?" she questioned. When Harry mumbled something about "since the end of my third year" she got very angry.  
  
"Did you inform Dumbledore?!?"  
  
"Of course he did," snapped Sirius. "It was the first the thing he did when he started getting them. There is nothing the Headmaster can do."  
  
"Oh," was all she could say in reply.  
  
"Where are the Dursleys?" asked Harry, desprate for a subject change.  
  
"Oh, that reminds me," Sirius growled angrily. "Those relatives of yours decided to leave at about three in the morning for a friend's house. They won't be back til the end of summer."  
  
"YAHOO!! That's the best thing that's happened all week!" yelled Harry. He was grinning from ear to ear.  
  
"Dumbledore is going to stop by later to find out how she is, so you might wanna clean yourself up a bit," Sirius stated calmly.  
  
"Ok then," said Harry as he turned to go up stairs.  
  
"Oh! While you're up there, could you bring your Professor a set of robes? Her's are still pretty bloody." Mcgonagall blushed slightly at Sirius comment, but Harry grinned and nodded, making his way back to his room.  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Sirius watched his godson run up stairs before turning to McGonagall. "I worry about him."  
  
"As do I," she responded.  
  
"There's nothing Dumbledore can do. We asked."  
  
"There has to be something; You can see how much that dream hurt him."  
  
"I know I know..."  
  
"But you're his godfather. Perhaps there is something..."  
  
"There's nothing," he said reluctantly. "I'll go do the dishes."  
  
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~  
  
Harry stood in front of the mirror and smiled. He didn't know McGonagall was a good cook. Or that she was worried about him. He pushed his glasses up his nose and sighed. He could hear the sounds of Dumbledore's arrival down stairs. Straightening up, he grabbed an extra set of robes and headed down stairs to greet the Headmaster.  
  
Harry raced down the stairs, straightening his shirt as he went. As he neared the living room he saw that Professor Dumbledore had arrived. The old professor now stood talking to Sirius and Professor McGonagall. He looked sad and grief-stricken. Harry didn't want to interrupt, so he stood quietly, out of earshot on the stairwell. As he watched, he witnessed Sirius pale and shakily sat as McGonagall put a hand upon his shoulder sadly. At this Harry decided to make his presence known and stepped forward into their vision. Dumbledore looked up at him and smiled weakly, then gestured for him to have a seat.  
  
"Have a seat Harry." After he sat down, Harry looked up at him expectantly, urging him to go on. Dumbledore took a deep breath and said quietly, "I have very grave news, Harry...."he trailed off uncertainly. "But I believe you should hurry to get your belongings first. Minerva has agreed to watch you for the rest of the holidays."  
  
"Umm...ok..." Harry said nodding slowly as he stood. He handed the robes to McGonagall, disappeared behind the corner and ran silently and lightly up the stairs. When he got back to his room, he could hear loud sobbing bursting forth from below. It didn't take him long too pack, but he decided not to go back down the stairs until the sobbing had ended. To pass the time, he pulled out the photo album that Hagrid gave him years ago at the end of his first year. He had added to it since, of course. On the first page, there were two pictures. One was of him, Ron, and Hermione in their black school robes just before the third task during their fourth year. The next picture was of his father, Remus Lupin, and Sirius taken at the end of their fourth year. He smiled and touched the picture lightly, but was immediately knocked out cold.  
  
When Harry opened his eyes, he found that he was in a well-kept kitchen. The walls were a faded yellow and to his left was a door leading outside. He looked to his right and noticed that Remus Lupin was sitting at the table drinking tea and reading the Daily Prophet. Harry called to him and found that didn't respond. Then he realized that this was another vision, just like his dreams. With a sense of forboding he sat on the floor to wait. He did not have to wait long.  
  
The door to his left suddenly flew open and Harry gasped as he saw Voldemort stalking in with a triumphant devious sneer upon his face. Remus looked to him terrified and quickly stood and drew his wand, but it was too late. Voldemort killed him with a flick of his wand.  
  
.and Harry woke up, screaming. He sat up in his bed and noticed that he was sweating profusely. Also, he noted, that he was shaking and shivering. He drew his knees to his chest and sat his chin upon them and tried to take deep breaths, but to no avail. He nearly smacked himself as he heard the thumping of feet running up the staircase to his room and the voices calling his name. "Harry! What's wrong?!" Suddenly the two professors and Sirius burst into his room and ran to him. He felt Sirius cool hands touching his face and coaxing him to look to them. But Harry looked blankly ahead, moving his lips and making nonsense. "Harry look at me! What's." But Sirius was cut short as he saw a single tear escape Harry's eye as Harry suddenly whispered a name before turning back to staring into nothing: "Remus" 


	4. Chapter 4

A/N: Wow. It has been a wicked long time since I updated. SORRY!!! ::whistles:: High School is a heck of a lot harder than I thought it would be, but hey! No excuse. Here is chapter four!!!  
  
Oh yeah, listen you mob of Remus Lupin fans. DON'T KILL ME! Read the story first. ::runs away from angry mob carrying torches and pitchforks::  
  
Gathering the Darkness  
  
Chapter 4  
  
Harry stared blankly at the wall, his photo album resting lightly on his lap. Remus. Was. Dead. He couldn't believe it. His favorite teacher, practically an uncle to him, was dead. He had seen the man die. There would be no consoling him.  
  
Sirius' eyes widened and he stuttered, "H-h-how..how did you know.?"  
  
"Another premonition?" Dumbledore gazed questioningly at the shocked boy. All Harry could do was nod as Dumbledore continued.  
  
"Well, perhaps you should know this, then. Remus Lupin is NOT dead. You cannot kill a werewolf that easily. But he is in a coma, and that is why Sirius and Minerva are so upset."  
  
"But.he.I saw Voldemort."  
  
"Use the killing curse? Werewolves do not die like most humans as a result of the Avada Kedavra. That's what put him in a coma. And we can't be sure if he'll ever come out of it."  
  
Harry stopped staring at the wall and shifted his gaze to the wizened old professor, who stared solemnly back. In the background, Sirius was desperately fighting off tears while McGonagall patted him comfortingly on the back. Harry felt really bad for him. He couldn't even begin to imagine what it would be like if Ron or Hermione were in Remus' place.  
  
"Well, I best be off. Sirius? Why don't you come with me? I am heading to St. Mungo's (A/N: Is that the name of the hospital? Correct me if I'm wrong.) to check up on Remus. If you are with me in your dog form no one will ever know you are there," Dumbledore suggested calmly. Sirius agreed to go and after a few quick farewells, they were gone leaving McGonagall and Harry alone.  
  
Harry turned his back on his Professor and put his photo album back in his trunk. Then, smiling slightly he said, "I'm ready to go when you are."  
  
~*~*~ It didn't take long to get to McGonagall's house in the northern countryside, just a ten minute Knight bus trip, though Harry figured it would be much longer in a car. The scenery was stunning. Her house was small, a simple old-fashioned cottage on the outskirts of the woods. She charmed his trunk to make it feather light and led him inside.  
  
He expected the house to be spotless, considering how neat and orderly its owner was. However, he was pleasantly surprised to find it was organized chaos. The living room was white with a blue carpet and mismatched chairs and tables, giving the room a cozy feel. The mantle over the fireplace was cluttered with countless pictures waving happily out at the room. It did not fit McGonagall's personality in the least.  
  
She smiled, "This is my home. I hope you like it."  
  
"I do," he replied.  
  
'Perhaps,' he thought, 'This may turn out to be a cool summer after all.' 


End file.
